A Classic Case
by Omnicat
Summary: Hilde Schbeiker did not take many things lying down. Celebrity crushes least of all. / 2xH and HxR


**Title:** A Classic Case

**Author:** Omnicat

**Rating:** K+

**Genre:** Romance

**Spoilers & Desirable Foreknowledge:** All of _Gundam Wing_, please.

**Warnings:** Bisexuality and a generally open-minded approach to sexuality; ships that are not set in stone.

**Pairings:** Hilde Schbeiker x Duo Maxwell, Hilde Schbeiker x Relena Peacecraft

**Disclaimer:** *checks tickybox*

**Summary:** Hilde Schbeiker did not take many things lying down. Celebrity crushes least of all.

**Author's Note:** Enjoy!

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**A Classic Case**

By the time of her first really big crush, Hilde Schbeiker had long since decided that as long as the person was cute and/or funny and/or nice enough, their plumbing didn't matter. Okay, so technically speaking it had been more of a realisation than a decision, but she liked to think of herself as someone who decided on the course of her life rather than standing by and watching it unfold, so she didn't usually admit to that.

Which made it all the more awkward when she noticed that, from one moment to the next, she seemed to have gone from thoughts fogged with painkillers about how Relena Peacecraft had a pretty smile, nice voice and soft hands and feeling vaguely disappointed that the only person besides Duo who came to see her regularly in the Peacemillion infirmary was leaving, to finding herself zoning out whenever Relena then-Darlian-again came on the TV, totally blocking out the words being spoken in favour of watching the curve and curl of her lips as she formed them.

Hilde was not amused.

Well, okay, she was. But she was also a little annoyed with herself for being so silly as to develop a crush on someone like Relena Darlian. A celebrity crush. Real mature, that. It was an impossible, doomed affection, and good riddance to it, Hilde decided.

That was the end of it. Would have been the end of it. Could have. Should have. Might have been, if not that same Relena Darlian had been kidnapped the following Christmas and Duo went after her along with his fellow ex-gundam pilots, only to come back brimful of stories about Relena, and Heero Yuy, and the two of them _together_.

The knowledge that there was a boy in Relena Darlian's life, much like Duo was in hers - yes, _that_ was the end of it. It made Hilde realise that Duo Flirts-With-Anything-That-Breathes Maxwell became surly when she paid attention to boys other than him, but not when other girls paid attention to boys other than him (nor when she paid attention to other girls: that little detail seemed to elude him), and once she let him notice that she'd noticed, they gradually but inevitably stumbled into a more intimate relationship. Eating out together became going in a date, shared jokes gained a double meaning, they ended up sleeping together in each other's room more often than separately in their own.

Which was nice. Hilde saw no indication that their comfortable companionship could not have lasted for many more years, if not a lifetime, had the reunion not taken place.

Relena Darlian's end of term as President of the ESUN, which she had become at the unprecedented age of twenty after having served as Vice Foreign Minister from age fifteen onwards, also came to double as a symbolic beginning of a new era and final retirement for the former gundam pilots. The small gathering was hardly enough to be called anything at all, but that might have been because of a complete lack of suitable words. Hilde had never experienced anything like it.

The ragtag group had witnessed and helped bring about the birth of a new world together, and she could feel that regardless of the exact details of what had happened back then, and no matter what was happening now or what would happen in the future, a part of them would always be connected, would always recognize each other. The others seemed to realise the same thing, because they all started seeing more of each other in the next years than they had in the previous ten combined.

Duo and Quatre Raberba Winner, head of Winner Enterprises Incorporated, got talking about business together and agreed that construction and salvaging had a lot to offer each other. Hilde finally got to know the cute clown she'd seen during the war, as well as his equally cute knife throwing sister; she was only interested in making friends at this point, but even so _he_ turned out to be not Hilde's type at all and _she_ was married and pregnant and had a vastly different mental and emotional vocabulary. And once again she met the subject of many a teenage fantasy and a scrapbook she most certainly did not keep in a shoe box in the back of her closet.

Relena Darlian still had a nice voice and a pretty smile, and the AC 205 winter season fashion showed exactly how far she had left Catholic school behind her and become comfortable with her modest figure since the days of Peacemillion. Her eyes were more tired in person, her voice softer, but no political section or glossy magazine could have done justice to her brightness and sense of humour.

What's more, she _remembered_ Hilde. It was Relena who approached her and initiated the conversation that brought back so many pleasantly frustrating memories by asking if she'd suffered any after-effects from her injuries back then, what she did nowadays, and, surprise, surprise, if she thought the current political climate benefited growing companies like Schbeiker-Maxwell Salvaging & Repair. In return, Hilde got an answer to something she'd wondered about every time an exaggerated and misleading detail about her love life had made the front pages: Duo _had_ been on to something when he said Relena and Heero were practically an item, but like with many other things concerning his more elusive acquaintances, had failed to stay up to date.

She and Heero had given a relationship a try a few years back, Relena explained, when he suddenly put an end to his wandering ways and settled down as a computer programmer near her childhood home in Japan. The romantic part had just never really taken off, so they had agreed to stick with friendship. Relena considered Heero part of her family now, and admitted, with a wry little smile, that he felt more like a brother to her than her biological brother ever had.

That wasn't something Hilde could wrap her mind around just like that, so she quickly moved on.

The first thing she wanted to do now that she no longer had a solar system to govern, Relena joked, was finally get her high school diploma. She loved her job dearly - no really - but after ten years straight in the world of politics she was ready for a break. There was a long list of things she wanted to do now that she had more free time than she could remember having since she was fourteen, not least of which were sleeping in, getting a tan, and catching up on her favourite author - who just happened to be the same trashy suspense novelist Hilde always kept in a pocket of her overalls for when the work was low. They exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses and Hilde didn't think anything of it until she found herself - again without having given the proper clearance - leaning the wrong way and almost kissing Relena 'goodbye' on the mouth.

Well, okay, an odd reaction or two was to be expected upon being suddenly reunited with a childhood crush after so many years. She laughed at her own enduring silliness.

Just as she sometimes did after concerts or movies, she closed her eyes during sex and imagined it was Relena next to her in Duo's bed. It had never been anything less than harmless, and Hilde did not start to worry until she realised she didn't want to open her eyes and stop pretending, that the reality of Duo's stubble, calloused fingers and rippling muscle became jarring. The better friends she grew with Relena, the stronger her renewed romantic feelings for the other woman grew. But, Hilde knew with uncomfortable certainty, it went at the expense of her relationship with Duo.

Hilde Schbeiker was not someone who took well to conditions she had not chosen for herself. Let alone being faced with unpleasant consequences or no-win choices sprouting from such conditions. So the natural response to the dilemma of her shifting interests was, of course, to rebel. Nothing and nobody, her own heart included, messed with her and got away with it.

With the same mutinous determination she once put into joining OZ for the sake of the colonies, leaving OZ for the sake of the colonies, and putting her life on the line for both the colonies and planet Earth, she freshened up her and Duo's wardrobes, looked up recipes for exotic foods, sought out new clubs and bought books and toys from the erotica shop. If she didn't know him better than that, she might even have suggested he'd do something new with his hair.

Though surprised, Duo was willing enough to go along in her sudden renewal frenzy that she didn't tell him what had brought it on until he sat her down one day and asked, in that serious tone he disliked having to use so much, what was bothering her. His infamously misleading attitude about the truth had rubbed off on her over the past few years: though she was loath to admit what accounted to defeat so soon, there was a line between not telling him things that would only bother him needlessly and telling outright lies, which she was not willing to cross. So she admitted that despite all her recent attempts at blowing new life into her relationship with him, she could no longer see him as a lover, only as a friend. A friend with benefits, at most. But she didn't think it was fair to him to pass that off as a romantic thing. And just for the heck of it, she revealed her bisexuality too, while she was at it. (Looking back, that might not have been such a good idea.)

Coming clean to and about at least one side of the triangle she'd found herself caught up in was a relief, but it made things awkward. Duo didn't get angry, but she saw how he shut his heart behind lock and key while she explained herself: for his doing, that was even worse. In retrospect, Hilde began to see it as a bad sign that they had never bought a bed for the two of them to share, instead of alternating between each other's like they had.

Duo wouldn't talk to her afterward, her parents were long dead and Relena was the last person Hilde wanted to talk to about this, which left only the group of friends she went out with in the weekends or when the latest chick flick came out, who one by one gave her advice that was kind and considerate and well-meant, but ultimately completely _wrong_.

She was close to telling Duo that she had no more control over her feelings than earthlings had over the weather, and that he couldn't blame her for that, when one morning he surprised her with a frightfully tight hug and a plea for her not to leave and to stay friends with him, at least.

She intended to abandon him no more than she would have disowned her children for growing up and moving out.

An analogy that earned her an indignant exclamation that told her everything would be fine. Not right now, not yet, but in time. And hey, it wasn't like she was just going to abandon him. They lived in the same house! He promised not to get mad if there turned out to be someone else, and asked if there was. She told him yes, but the person she'd fallen for did not know she had. They agreed to let things run their natural course for a while and see where it landed them.

Which, for Hilde, was on the first bus to the port side district of their colony when she heard Relena would be staying in town for business. She was surprised to learn Relena had already told the hotel staff to expect her and let her through, but every single butterfly that sprang to life in her stomach at that gesture agreed that there was only one thing left for her to do: find out if Relena was interested.

It was hard to stay mad while being head over heels in love, after all.

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**PSAN:** Hope you liked it. ^_^


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